Lightlark

As Isla continues searching for the heart of Lightlark, she encounters more side quests and helpers, two common tropes in fantasy adventure stories. Aster introduces the blue bird in this segment. This creature functions as an enigmatic and annoying animal helper whose interference in Isla’s search initially is a red herring, distracting her from what she needs to focus on. When Oro betrays her to partner with Cleo, Isla becomes more certain that the bird is a spy for Cleo. Despite these initial impressions, the bird turns out to be a major plot device in the climax of the novel.

Isla’s paranoia about Cleo and general lack of trust have not arisen from nowhere; this section focuses on the theme of Abandonment and Betrayal. The oracle tells Isla that there are “lies and liars all around” (275). This prophecy only confirms what Isla has always suspected, but at this point in the narrative, she doesn’t know who the liars might be. Her guardians, Terra and Poppy, have trained her not to trust anyone. As part of this training, they once left her hanging by her hands from a tree branch for three hours. The lesson she took from this abusive exercise was that she could not trust anyone to protect her and she had to rely only on herself. In the Centennial games, though, Isla realizes that she cannot succeed without help, especially as her lack of magical powers renders her vulnerable to the much more powerful competitors she interacts with. She must learn to balance trust with wariness, a lesson that is still in progress at the end of the book as she embarks on a romantic relationship with Oro.

The relationship between Power and Duty becomes more fraught in this section, as Isla uses the star stick to check in on Wildling and finds the land and one of her guardians dying. To protect her lands, she must increase her power, even if it means leaving herself vulnerable. She decides to share her secret powerlessness with Oro in exchange for the chance to wield the heart of Lightlark. When Oro shares her secret with the other rulers, Isla doesn’t know whom to trust. This apparent betrayal increases her sense of suspicion and isolation, and she goes into hiding at the Place of Mirrors on Wild Isle.

This setting comes to have greater importance to Isla in these chapters. She learns more about her Wildling ancestors and thus about herself. The palace walls are made of mirrors, which initially seem cold and disorienting, reflecting Isla’s experience of being betrayed. But as she spends more time there, the Place of Mirrors also represents Isla’s search for her history and her growing reliance on and trust in herself. This prepares her to accept Oro’s explanation and renewed offer of an alliance when it comes.

Oro’s reentry into Isla’s life happens after two traumatic attacks. One of these is from Cleo, who seems to see Isla more as an annoyance than a legitimate threat and thus only freezes her in ice rather than attempting to kill her outright. The second attack is from a group of cannibals called the Vinderlanders, who want to eat Isla. Later in the novel, the Vinderlanders are revealed to be Wildlings who were left behind and have gone feral. In them, Isla sees another mirror: Their cannibalism represents the ultimate self-abandonment, a fate Isla is trying to avoid by learning more about herself.